Sunday, January 2, 2011

New-Year's Resulotion

This is my resolution for 2011:

I WILL, honestly, I WILL get the Alkonost setting into a playable shape no later than December 21st, 2011 (which is Hani's birthday), and start the game on that date, OR EARLIER. Enough with tinkering - I must create a gameable setting and prepare to play it!

2 comments:

If you have a couple of planets close together already worked out, you can start. You have the rest of the subsector to show the players the general area and that usually keeps them happy even if the planetary data only runs to a paragraph.

The first adventure, ideally, takes them to a new system (so they get a taste of ship life and the magic of entering a new system) and then the adventure begins - either in space, on a moon, on another world in the new system, or on the main world. The new adventure should last a couple of sessions, so you have time to expand the notes on the next world. "We need to go here," the players say, but you add the plot twist that the drug, person, spare part, fleeing villain has gone 'there' - the world you've just worked up, and off they go.

You can actually use your players like an informal Grand Survey in that you have to do a bit of in depth thinking about the worlds they can possibly jump to, what they might find there, and what might hold them there for a couple of sessions while you work up the next world.

And sometimes the story you're creating just holds them on a world, even though you're ready to move on, forcing you to think a bit harder about that one world, it's society and history, and whatever it is that the players are looking for.

I do have good ideas for most worlds in my subsector; I hate "filler worlds" with a passion, so each and every of the 30 or so worlds I'll detail will be unique and interesting to explore, both physically and socially/culturally.